We just had a great and relaxing time at Catalonia. We were a party of 5 adults and 4 children. The beach is great and the waves are much fun. The pool is awsome especially for kids. It has a slope entry and kids of all ages love it. The grounds are beautiful and well taken care of. The food is good (you have to eat at the Pizza restaurant at least once - the pizza is great) and they have several restaurants that take reservations, for a change of pace. It is primarily Europeans and has a wonderful atmosphere. Most everyone speaks several languages and can help out whenever there is a problem. Do remember this is the Dominican Republic, a spanish speaking country, so of course not everyone is fluent in English, and visitors should not expect that. Needless to say, we are excited to go back.

Hello,

Well like alot of people i decided it was time to take a vacation and booked last min, Reading all the reviews i could find on this hotel told me this was my last resort of places to go and thus was the only place i could book haha

But i was very pleased with this resort. here is a quick rundown

1. This is an Italian resort and thus most people speak Italian the next would be french and then spanish and then finaly english ( but the staff do know english even though it may be hard for them to understand all the words )

2. This is a family resort or a couple's resort ( as a single i had an awesome time but this is not the resort if your looking to pick up people or a date )

3. The rooms are nice and the beach is amazing if you have ny issues they will address the issues

4. entertainment is awesome even though they dont do it in english

Overall great resort and i hope it stays being non-american as then the atmosphere will be awesome this place is ment to be relaxing and fun for the family and couples and thats what it was as a single i met alot of couples and alot of non-english people who spoke it pretty good so you can converse with them

Enjoy,

Like several other reviewers, I did not choose this hotel but was forced into it when my resort of choice, the Canoa Coral, overbooked and upon arrival, rudely told us that we MUST now stay there.

The first night we waited 3 hours, until 2am, for our rooms, and they never apologized.

They claimed it is "similar quality" to the original hotel but it is not even close, and they still demanded full price!

Some highlights of our room:

cockroaches
lousy TV reception
nasty smell coming through air conditioning
cockroaches
handle on shower came off
in-room safe broken

Take my advice: avoid these sharks at both the Canoa Coral and the Catalonia! If you do, at least only pay half up front in case they screw you!

The staff's inability to speak / understand english led to a miscommunication that cost us several hundred dollars in service fees. We tried to negociate some sort of compensation with customer relations they did nothing to help us and never followed up with us as promised. I strongly discourage anybody who doesn't speak fluent spanish to go to this resort.